322 DIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS. 



the addition of a little borax, it composes an ink not 

 easily acted upon when dry by damp or water. In this- 

 country, where it is distinguished by the names stick-lac 

 when in its native state unseparated from the twigs to 

 which it adheres ; seed-lac when separated^ pounded, and 

 the greater part of the colouring matter extracted by 

 water ; lump-lac when melted and made into cakes; and 

 shell-lac when strained and formed into transparent la- 

 minae; — it has hitherto been chiefly employed in the 

 composition of varnishes, japanned ware and sealing- 

 wax : but within these few years it lias been applied 

 to a still more important purpose, originally suggested 

 by Dr. Roxburgh — that of a substitute for cochineal in 

 dyeing scarlet. The first preparations from it with this 

 view were made in consequence of a hint from Dr. Ban- 

 croft, and large quantities of a substance termed lac-lake, 

 consisting of the colouring matter of stick-lac precipi- 

 tated from an alkaline lixivium by alum, were manufac- 

 tured at Calcutta and sent to this country, where at first 

 the consumption was so considerable, that in the three 

 years previous to 1810 Dr. Bancroft states that the sales 

 of it at the India House equalled in point of colouring 

 matter half a million of pounds weight of cochineal- 

 More recently, however, a new preparation of lac colour, 

 under the name of lac-dye, has been imported from India,, 

 which has been substituted for the lac-lake, and with such 

 advantage, that the East India Company are said to have 

 saved in a few months 14,000/. in the purchase of scarlet 

 cloths dyed with this colour and cochineal conjointly, and 

 without any inferiority in the colour obtained 3 . 



* Bancroft on prrmanent Colours, ii. 20. 49„ 



